Breathe Into Me
by HatterLifeStyle
Summary: Sasuke walked up to Sakura and slowly lifted his hand. Gently, he poked her forehead with his index and middle finger. "Bye Sakura." He murmured. For the third time in one day Itachi was shocked by his brother's strange behavior. SasuSaku: AU: Pro Itachi
1. Chapter 1

Spring had made its way to the village hidden in the leaves and with it the villagers all felt their moods lift. Many trees throughout the village had blossomed and the streets were peppered with the fallen petals. A young girl was running to one of the many blossoming trees in the fields surrounding the village's ninja academy where she and her friend had agreed to meet. The fallen petals that lined the streets swirled behind her as she ran, marking the path she followed. As she was nearing the meeting spot she waved and called out to her friend and the other two girls that were with her.

"Hey, girls!" She called to them. Her blond friend lifted her head and waved back. "Sakura, what took you so long?" she asked but Sakura just waved the question aside as she smiled down at Ino who had been sitting on the ground leaning against the trunk of a fallen tree. "Ino, you'll never guess who I like." Sakura announced happily.

"Itachi Uchiha isn't it?" The answer hadn't come from Ino but from one of the other girls. Sakura quickly deflated, she hadn't thought it was that obvious. "How- how did you know?" She asked.

The girl scoffed. "Everyone likes him, Sakura. Even Ino likes him."The other girl answered as if it were a known fact which, in a way, it was. Sakura turned to Ino again. "Is that true?" she asked quietly. Ino didn't answer. She just looked down and away.

"Of course it true." The second girl answered. "Who wouldn't like him, with his long hair?" she said flipping her own hair over her shoulder. "-and those cute lines on his face." The other girl continued looking out into space as if she were seeing the older Uchiha brother's face in her mind.

"Wait, what?" Sakura asked. "Sasuke-kun doesn't have any lines on his face. Or long hair." She said looking at the girls with her brow furrowed in confusion. The girls eyes widened in shock." You were talking about _Sasuke_ Uchiha?" The very idea seemed to be inconceivable to them; Ino, however, was looking at Sakura with a hopeful expression on her face.

"Yes, I was talking about Sasuke!" Sakura answered. To her it seemed obvious that she should be talking about the younger Uchiha, the one that they actually saw on a regular basis. Ino was finally able to face her fully, relief washing over her.

"Oh." The first girl who spoke said. She was still looking at her strangely. "You can have him." She said her face and voice laced with disdain that angered Sakura because it was directed not only at her but at Sasuke as well.

"What's so bad about Sasuke?" she asked hesitantly. She wanted to show the girl that she was angry but she'd been made fun of so much and now thanks to Ino the other girls had begun to lay off, she didn't want to go back to the old ways.

"Oh, there's nothing _bad _about him. He's actually pretty cute. It's just that he can't compete with his brother." The second girl answered with a matter-of-fact tone that really hit a nerve with Sakura. She'd always been shy and reserved, and although she'd never find it in her to stand up for herself she could do it for Sasuke. And she did.

"Well, why should he." She snarled at the girls. Both girls looked completely taken aback. Even Ino, who had still not gotten up, was looking at her with her mouth slightly open. "Excuse me?" The first girl said after recovering from the shock. Her brown eyes had narrowed. She was trying to intimidate Sakura, challenge her, but she was finally past caring.

"Why should Sasuke-kun compete with his brother? Just because he graduated at a younger age doesn't mean he'll always be a better ninja." She said, her own eyes narrowing. The challenge had been accepted. "Besides," she continued getting into a defensive stance. The girl was moving closer to her ready for a fight. Ino got up and ready as well. "Sasuke-kun is top of our class. Doesn't that account for anything?" The girl was slowly lifting a formed fist.

"Apparently not." Another voice said from behind her and Ino. Sakura froze in place. "Sasuke-kun." She whispered. A small part of her felt great pleasure in seeing the other girl's terrified expressions as they looked somewhere behind her.

"You think I'll never live up to my brother?" he spoke again; his voice was deadly and quiet, just above a whisper. The girl opened her mouth as if to answer but only a short breathy sound came out. It seemed that whatever she was going to answer she decided to hold back. "Well, you're wrong, understand?" he said in the same low voice. Both girls nodded quickly their eyes still wide with fear. "Leave." He ordered. The girls nodded and left running. Ino who had turned to look at Sasuke also left but slowly since he was apparently not angry with her.

Sakura still didn't move an inch. She somehow knew that the order he had given didn't apply to her. She was surprised when she felt his presence beside her.

"Thanks." He muttered to her. She finally dared to move and turned to see him looking down at the ground. "Huh?"

"Other than my brother you seem to be the only person who sees me like that." He elaborated. "Oh. Your welcome!" she said giving him a toothy grin. Having Sasuke talk to her like that, open up, confide in her, suddenly made him considerably less intimidating. He smiled back and tilted his head slightly to the side. He had just opened his mouth to say something else when another voice interrupted him.

"Sasuke, Come on, let's go! I have a mission to get t-?" Itachi had agreed to pick Sasuke up at the academy that day but when he had gotten there Iruka had told him that Sasuke had left. Normally he would have waited by the academy doors for his brother to come but he was pressed for time so Itachi had decided to follow his brother's chakra signature. He would have never imagined that he'd find his little brother talking, _smiling_, with a girl. Sasuke did _not_ talk to girls. Sasuke didn't talk to _anyone_ outside the clan for more than three sentences. "Sasuke?" he asked trying to make sure it was his little brother. He couldn't think of any other kid in the village that had the same spiky hair as his brother but that couldn't be him.

"Itachi!" his brother shouted spinning around and running to him, hugging him firmly round the stomach. "Hey, little brother." He said patting Sasuke on the shoulders. "Who's your little friend?" he asked wondering who the pink haired girl his brother had been talking with was. Sasuke pulled back and started tugging him towards the girl. "This is Sakura Haruno. She's in my class at the academy." He said, pulling him harder.

"Ah." So she was his classmate. "Nice to meet you, Sakura." He said smiling. The girl gave him an embarrassed smile in return and bowed her head. "Thank you, Itachi-san." She murmured while shuffling her feet. Both brothers laughed. "There's no need to call me Itachi-san, Sakura." He said. "Yeah, call him Itachi, like I do." Sasuke said, smiling and tapping Sakura's shoulder with his fist in a friendly gesture. She looked up and smiled back. Itachi's eyebrows rose slightly for a fraction of a second but he quickly recovered from his surprise. He coughed to clear his throat.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke but I have to go on a mission soon. We have to go." He said knowing his brother wouldn't be happy. "But Itachi!" he moaned. Itachi inwardly groaned. He was surely going to have to put up with his brother's complaints the whole walk home. "Its okay, Sasuke-kun, I should go too." Sakura told him. "Well, we're probably going the same way. We can walk together for a bit can't we, Itachi?" he said looking up at his older brother with big black eyes pleading like only a little brother can. "Sure, why not." Itachi surrendered with a sigh. When it came to Itachi Sasuke's pleading eyes were more effective than any Sharingan. "Yes!" Sasuke shouted while pumping a fist in victory. "Come on Sakura, let's go." He said pulling her sleeve to get her to follow him. Soon they were running far ahead while Itachi followed from a distance, walking slowly with his hands in his pockets whistling a random tune that popped up in his head.

"I have to go this way, Sasuke-kun." Sakura said after they had crossed the market. "Aw, man." Sasuke said looking disappointed. "Stop whining little brother." Itachi said once he reached them. "You'll see each other tomorrow at the academy." He continued, putting a hand on their shoulders. "Yeah…" Sasuke agreed half-heartedly while looking at the roof of the academy that was visible from where they were.

"Bye Itachi. Bye Sasuke-kun." Sakura said looking at each of them as she addressed them. Itachi nodded and smiled. Sasuke walked up to Sakura and slowly lifted his hand. She followed it with her gaze. Gently he poked her forehead with his index and middle finger. "Bye Sakura." He murmured. For the third time in one day Itachi was shocked by his brother's strange behavior. After their goodbyes Sakura ran off towards her house, stopping briefly to wave at them one last time before rounding a corner.

The rest of their walk home was rather quiet. Sasuke tried talking to his brother every once in a while but Itachi was just too distracted to give him any real answers but that didn't seem to bother Sasuke at all. He seemed very pleased to have finally found a friend outside the Uchiha compound.

"Mother, father, guess what! Today I made a new friend!"

"Is that so? What's their name?"

"Sakura Haruno."

"Sasuke Uchiha."


	2. Chapter 2

After Sasuke told his mother about his new friend he hurried after his older brother who had gone to his room. Without so much as knocking he barged in. His brother had been in the process of taking off his shirt. Sasuke knew better than to disturb him. He silently padded to a chair in the corner of his brother's room and watched him as he finished removing the shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol, doing so revealed the Anbu tattoo placed on his left shoulder. Since Itachi had been named Anbu the two brothers had made a silent agreement. Sasuke would always be there as Itachi put on his Anbu attire, silently watching. Sometimes he'd even be the one to lay out the uniform on his brother's bed while he took care of other business, something Itachi had never allowed anyone else to do. To Sasuke, seeing his brother put on the Anbu uniform was like seeing a transformation, a whole new wave of respect washed over him as his brother but on the black and gray armor followed by the arm guards. Itachi did all this with his back turned to Sasuke. It wasn't until the porcelain cat mask was placed on the side of his head that he would turn to his brother. Sasuke would get up and grab the katana that was propped against the wall beside his seat. He'd then walk up to his brother and hand it to him. Itachi took the katana and strapped it to his back. He'd then smile down at his brother while sliding the mask so that it covered his face completely. After poking his brother's forehead once he'd leave the room and go on his mission. On that day he stopped just outside the house and looked at Sasuke through the slits of his mask.

"When I get back I'll help you with the shuriken technique, little brother." He said calmly. Sasuke's face lit up and a childish grin spread across his face but before he could say anything his brother had already left. Sasuke smiled at the direction he knew his brother had taken for a moment before shutting the door quietly. He went to the kitchen where he knew his mother was probably drinking a nice cup of tea. He slowly padded in and saw his mother sitting and serving the freshly made beverage.

"Would you like some tea, Sasuke?" she asked him without looking at him. He didn't answer; he simply got another cup and set it in front of his mother. As she served his tea he settled down beside her; the only sound in the kitchen was the tea pouring into the cup. She handed it to him; Sasuke watched the steam swirl over it and, holding it with both hands, blew on it to cool it down.

As he took his first sip his mother broke their silence. "Has your brother left then?" she asked looking at her own cup held between her two hands just like him. A lifetime of watching her drink her afternoon tea had made him adopt the way she held her cup. "Hn." He answered. As she took another sip from her cup Mikoto's lips curved into a smile, her youngest son was so cute in her eyes. Earlier that same day he had come in and started talking to her animatedly about some girl he had met and suddenly they had been sitting side by side for ten minutes and she only got one syllable out of him. "Did he say anything before he left?" she asked. "He said he'd teach me shuriken technique when he got back." Sasuke said with a cute smirk sliding along his lips as he looked up at his mother. Mikoto smiled at her youngest son and caressed his cheek lightly. "That's Nice." He closed his eyes and let his mother's caress wash over him for a while. She tried patting his spiky hair down but it stayed as stubborn as ever and she sighed, defeated. "I'm going to go finish my homework so that when Itachi helps me with my technique we can stay out longer." Sasuke informed before gulping down the rest of his tea, burning himself in the process. He grimaced but gave no other sign of pain. Mikoto closed her eyes and sighed, lightly shaking her head. Her sons, just like her husband, were always too proud to admit to any kind of pain. She stood up and got him a glass of cool water. He took it with a small grunt and quickly drank it. "Be more careful, Sasuke." She chided lightly though she found her youngest son's eagerness quite funny. He grunted in an annoyed manner to let her know that he heard her and went to his room to do his work.

_Shinobi Mathematics Chapter four:_

_Question 1: A four man team of Shinobi has finished a mission and is returning to their village. On the way they encounter eight bandits who will not allow them to pass them without a fight. How many bandits must each member of the team fight?_

Sasuke tilted his head. To him the questions seemed pretty easy.

_Answer: 2._

_Question 2: Another team has finished a mission and is taking the same path through the woods. They encounter the same group of bandits. This is a two man team. How many bandits must each team member fight?_

_Answer: 4._

Sasuke stayed completely concentrated on his work, determined to finish it before his brother came back. His mother brought him another tea while he worked and checked his answers over his shoulder. She stayed in the room with him for a moment to see if he needed any help but he didn't say a word. A proud smile made its way on her face and she left the room shutting the door.

_Question 10: A group of Shinobi is given a mission. To complete it they must arrive at a village 90 miles from their current location. For the mission to be successful they must arrive within 3 days of receiving their orders. The team captain decides that they should travel the same distance each day to get to the village. How many miles does the team cover each day?_

_Answer: 30 miles._

Itachi watched his brother close the book and rub his eyes. He got out of his chair and turned to leave. His eyes opened slightly when he saw Itachi standing at the entrance to his room, back in his normal clothes.

"Ready to go, little brother?" he asked. "Just a minute!" Sasuke hurried to his closet and took out his ninja gear. He strapped on the little pouch with his weapons, a present from his brother from when he joined the academy, and pulled him out the door. "We're leaving now, mother. Bye!" was all Itachi could say to their mother as Sasuke pulled him out of the house and to their training ground.

"How did I do?" Sasuke asked his brother a few hours later when they stopped their training to rest under one of the trees that surrounded them. "Very good, little brother." Itachi answered as he sipped from his water bottle. He let his gaze linger on his brother who had his back against the tree and was flipping one of his shurikens into the air like one would a coin. His brother looked very content and carefree.

"Sasuke, I've been wanting to talk to you about something." He told his brother. Something about the way his brother spoke made Sasuke curious; he immediately stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. Itachi took this as a sign to continue. "That girl you were talking to today-" Sasuke interrupted him. "Sakura." He corrected. "Yes, Sakura." Itachi continued. "How did you start talking?" he asked finally. Sasuke suddenly looked angry. He turned his face away from Itachi so that his bangs hid his face. He gave no indication that he was going to answer and Itachi suddenly felt a cold wave of anxiety shoot through his spine and settle in his stomach. Sasuke always talked to him, always.

Sasuke on the other hand felt frustrated by what those girls said. He wanted to get some control over his emotions before talking to Itachi about it. He slowly replayed the whole conversation he had overheard in his head.

"_Everyone likes him."_

"_Long hair."_

"_Cute lines."_

"_He could never compete with his brother."_ How he burned with rage because of that sentence.

"_Why should he?" _As he remembered all the things she had said to defend him he felt the anger dim slightly. It didn't vanish completely but he no longer felt the need to clench his jaw so tight or form such tight fists.

"_You were talking about Sasuke?" _The incredulousness in that voice stung him though he would never admit it.

"_Yes, I was talking about Sasuke!" _ His jaw relaxed some more, allowing his lips to curve ever so slightly upwards. What had she been saying about him? He couldn't seem to be able to remember at the moment.

Neither one of the brothers realized that they had been silent for over five minutes, Sasuke remembering the conversation that had taken place and Itachi wondering over all the things that could possibly have happened to Sasuke to make him keep quiet.

"She stood up for me." Sasuke said quietly. Itachi finally managed to breathe normally again. "Oh?" he asked. Sasuke then told him all about the conversation he had overheard.

"So all the girls in your class like me?" Itachi asked, releasing a long sigh of annoyance. Now Sasuke's classmates as well as his own, just his luck. "Except Sakura." Sasuke corrected. Itachi smirked inwardly. This possessive streak that Sasuke had just displayed was the perfect opportunity to mess with him a bit. "That's a shame." he said letting his smirk appear on his face. "She was nice." He said lying back against the tree trunk beside his brother. "I wouldn't mind finding a girl like that." He said nonchalantly. He knew that what he was saying was getting to Sasuke. His head was tilted down and he was glaring at him through narrowed eyes. "She's pretty, too. Don't you think so, Sasuke?" he only barely managed to hold back his laughter as Sasuke's eyes widened and his cheeks flushed. His question had obviously taken him by surprise. Itachi found the situation too amusing to pass up and continued. "Well, Sasuke?" he asked cocking an eyebrow. "I guess." Sasuke muttered finally shifting back to his annoyed glare before looking away. "The kid she likes is pretty lucky." Itachi said closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the rough bark of the tree. "What?" Sasuke asked quietly and with a lot of venom, considering he was only seven years old. "You heard me." His brother answered looking at him with one open eye. In his right hand Sasuke held a kunai he had begun to spin around at some point in their conversation. His fist tightened around the handle and he glared at the target he used to practice his aim. He said nothing. "Really lucky." His brother whispered into his ear. He didn't even realize Sasuke had moved until he heard a "thunk" as the kunai sunk into the wood of the target. Even then he had to shift his gaze from the kunai sticking out of the target to his brother's empty right hand and back to make sure he really had moved.

"Foolish little brother, are you jealous?" he asked. "Hn." Oh, he was _so_ jealous. "Because you shouldn't be." He told him, deciding that he had finally had enough fun. "What?" his brother asked. Curiosity had gotten the best of him; he had even forgotten to glare at him. "You're supposed to be smart, little brother." Suddenly Sasuke remembered to glare. "Think about the conversation you just told me about." Itachi began to gather their things so they could go. Sasuke was frowning, he had his eyes closed and his brow furrowed, a sure sign that he was thinking very deeply. Itachi had finally finished gathering everything, all that was left was the kunai Sasuke had thrown. It took him three sharp tugs to get it out. Sasuke was getting very good.

Their whole walk home was rather silent. Itachi had offered to carry Sasuke. He knew his brother thought best when he could keep his eyes closed and since it was partly his fault that he had so much to think about he decided to help him just a little.

Throughout dinner Sasuke still kept quiet. He shoveled down all his food and then pushed the plate away. He clasped his hands in front of his face and kept thinking. "Sasuke are you alright?" His mother began to worry. "I'm fine." He said quickly, not wanting to lose his train of thought. His mother turned to Itachi who gave her a reassuring smirk. "Time for bed, Sasuke." She said after debating whether she should push the subject a bit more or not. She had expected a fight from her youngest but was surprised when he simply threw his hands up in the air. "I give up." He shouted completely frustrated, then stomped off towards his room by himself.

Mikoto turned to her eldest son and crossed her arms. "Is there anything you'd like to say to me, Itachi?" she asked, giving him a piercing look. "Yes." He answered. "Would you like to play go?" he asked. He had already set the board on the table. Mikoto sighed but decided to trust her son's judgment. They had been playing for over an hour when they heard light padding footsteps and Sasuke appeared in the room. Mikoto had opened her mouth to send him back to bed but Itachi had already spoken. "So you figured it out?" he asked. A smug smirk made its way up Sasuke's face. "I'm simply feeling lucky." Sasuke answered as he looked at his mother through the corner of his eyes to see if she knew anything. Mikoto simply looked from one boy to the other wondering if they'd explain. "Good. Go to sleep, little brother." Itachi answered while placing another black piece on the board, gaining a big advantage on his mother. Sasuke threw himself at his brother and hugged him around the neck. He then hugged his mother and kissed her cheek. She followed him with her startled gaze as he ran out the room. She looked down to see that Itachi had put the go board away and was looking at her with an amused smile on his face.

"Sasuke and I had the most amusing conversation today." He began.

_AN:/ There. All you Itachi fans should be pretty satisfied, I know I am .I know there's very little Sakura in this chapter but there's tons of Uchiha goodness!_


	3. Chapter 3

The next day Sasuke woke up in a very good mood. He stretched the stiffness out of his muscles then sat up. With a few minutes to spare before he had to get up he took a moment to contemplate the previous day's events, a smile forming on his childish face. He then threw the covers off his body and placed his feet on the floor. He shivered slightly at the cold contact and then dashed towards the kitchen where he could hear his parents talking.

"Good morning, Sasuke. Did you sleep well?" his mother asked him as soon as she sensed him in the doorway. "Yes, mother." He answered, sitting at the table with his father. "Good morning, father." He mumbled. Fugaku sat in his usual stiff fashion at the head of the small table, his face stern and tense, he seemed like he was contemplating a lot of serious issues. His expression was, in a way, very similar to the one Sasuke had worn during the previous night. "Morning." He muttered. Sasuke bowed his head in disappointment. He had hoped to hear his father talk to him, ask him how he was or what he had been doing at the academy; but he didn't. He never did.

"Where's Itachi?" Sasuke asked once he noted the absence of his brother's usual comforting smile after his father's cold indifference. "I asked him to do me a favour before breakfast." Sasuke sighed and followed his mother's graceful movements through the kitchen with his gaze. As if she sensed his disappointment she turned around and smiled at him. "He said he'd take you to the academy after." Sasuke's face lit up and he started eating his breakfast with vigour. Mikoto laughed. "Slow down Sasuke! You've got enough time to eat your breakfast without your hands becoming blurs!" she said running a hand through his spiky hair. He looked up at her and smiled sheepishly, then forcefully swallowed the large bite he had in his mouth.

"Good morning, little brother." Itachi said as he entered the kitchen a few minutes later with a paper bag clutched tightly in his hand. He ruffled Sasuke's hair slightly leaving it even spikier than before and walked up to Mikoto who was scowling at him slightly for spiking his brother's hair after she had just managed to somewhat tame it. "Here you go mother. I honestly don't know what you could possibly want so many Senbei for." He muttered. At the mention of his favourite snack Sasuke's head whipped around and his sight was fixed on to the paper bag his brother had carried in with him. His mother and brother both laughed and even Fugaku's lips curved slightly at his youngest son's reaction. "I asked your brother to go buy them for you so you could take them to the academy". Mikoto explained while opening the bag to inspect its contents.

Her eyes widened when she saw just how full the bag was. "Itachi, I asked you to buy ten! There must be more than twenty in this bag." Itachi smiled. "I got caught up talking to auntie and I mentioned Sasuke's new friend to her and she may have put some extra crackers in there." He looked sideways at Sasuke who had made a little noise of protest in his throat. "What's wrong little brother?" he asked. Sasuke's eyes had widened and his eyebrows were deeply furrowed. "You told auntie?" he asked, clearly annoyed. "Is there a problem with that?" Itachi asked smirking. "Now she'll tell everyone!" Sasuke moaned. Mikoto placed her hands on her hips and watched Sasuke give his brother another annoyed look before huffing and turning back to his food.

"Don't worry Sasuke. No one's going to steal Sakura from you." Itachi said poking his brother's head with a cheeky grin. Sasuke tilted his head but kept eating even as he felt the heat rush up to his cheeks. "That's enough Itachi. Stop teasing your brother." Itachi chuckled and sat down to eat his own breakfast while Sasuke nodded his head once in agreement with his mother.

Once the two brothers had finished eating Mikoto gave Sasuke his lunch as well as the bag of Senbei and walked them both to the door. "Remember Sasuke, be good. And don't eat all those crackers by yourself." She said. "I won't!" Sasuke answered happily and began his walk down the road towards the academy. "Could you be any blunter mother?" Itachi asked her before following his brother. "Don't criticise my mothering techniques Itachi." She said playfully to her son. "You do know that the chances of him actually sharing are minimal, right?" he asked her. Mikoto sighed. "He needs to learn to get along with other people Itachi." She told him. They could hear Sasuke calling his brother, telling him to hurry up. Itachi took a few steps in the direction Sasuke had gone then stopped and turned to his mother. "If he shares those, I swear I'll start planning a wedding." He stated before breaking into a light jog to catch up to his little brother who was starting to worry about being late. Mikoto watched them walk away, Sasuke pulling on Itachi's sleeve forcefully to get him to walk faster. She then looked up at the sky and noticed that some very dark clouds were on the horizon and that in a few hours it would probably start to rain.

"I hope Sasuke gets home before it starts to rain. It looks like it'll be quite a storm." She said while she entered the kitchen where her husband was still seated. "He'll be fine." He muttered he got up and headed to the door, kissing her lightly on the cheek. As he was turning to leave Mikoto wrapped her hands around a fistful of his shirt's material and turned him towards her, their faces inches apart. "Fugaku, you need to start showing interest in Sasuke as well. All he wants is your respect, like Itachi." She whispered to him brushing her hand across his face gently. "Hm." He leant his head against hers. "He met a girl yesterday." She told him. "So I heard." He answered, breathing out slowly. "She likes him." She continued. "Of course she likes him, he's our child." She smiled and closed her eyes as well. She knew that for her husband there was no greater praise. "Sasuke likes her too." Fugaku pulled back slightly, he had opened his eyes and had his eyebrows ever so slightly raised. "Is that so?" he asked. Now Mikoto was wary, she found his sudden interest suspicious. "Yes, at least that's what Itachi told me." She answered cautiously. "I see," He said as he looked out the kitchen window with a thoughtful look on his face. "I would very much like to meet this girl. Why don't we invite her and her family for dinner?" Mikoto's eyes widened and her mouth lay slightly open. She couldn't believe it, when she had begun this conversation with her husband she had hoped to get him to prove that he had at least listened to her while she and Itachi had talked in the kitchen earlier that morning about Sasuke's new friend. She never thought he'd propose something like _that_!

"But- but you hate having people over!" she stuttered. "I'm just curious about this girl that has Sasuke acting so differently." He explained, smiling and pulling his wife into his chest. "Fugaku, they met yesterday. Don't you think this might be too sudden?" she asked. "Says the woman who sent Itachi to buy those rice crackers Sasuke loves so much to get him to share with the girl." Fugaku laughed. Mikoto swatted his chest playfully. "Sneaky bastard, you're always listening in on everything aren't you?" He rubbed the area she had punched, his wife may not have gone on many missions lately but she was still a jonin and had a very good punch. "Head of the police." He reminded her. She scowled at him and he just smirked back and kissed her once more before walking out the door and heading to work. She began washing the dishes and muttering about her husband's cheeky attitude

"And we _are_ having her over for dinner." Fugaku insisted. His head was peaking into the kitchen. He didn't expect the soapy sponge that hit him square in the face. "Whatever you say, _darling_."

While Fugaku was trying to get the soap out of his eyes his sons had finally reached the academy. All the students were waiting outside until Iruka opened the doors to let them into the classroom. They distanced themselves a bit from the rest of the students and while Sasuke's gaze roamed over all of his classmates Itachi leant against a wall silently watching his brother. However he soon had to avert his attention from him when he heard his name being mentioned between girlish giggles. He saw a group of girls not too far away from where he and his brother were waiting, they were all looking at him and giggling except for a blond girl who would look at him then blush and look down. Sasuke had also noticed the girls. He glared at them for a few moments then grunted and turned his back to them.

"Are those the girls from yesterday?" he asked his brother who refused to look at them without glaring. "Hn." was Sasuke's short answer. "Ah." They lapsed into silence again. Itachi began tracing the long cut he had along his left forearm from the mission he had gone on the day before with his right hand as he began to ignore the girls.

"Sakura!" Itachi turned when his brother shouted. He instantly located Sakura thanks to her pink hair. She had joined the group of girls that had been watching him. She had been chatting with the two girls he had noticed before, and apparently had yet to locate them. Once her eyes settled on the brothers she smiled. Sasuke jerked his head for her to join them. She muttered something to the other girls and ran to them. Her arms wrapped around Sasuke. "Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" She greeted happily. She didn't let go of him until he wished her good morning as well. Once she pulled back she greeted Itachi as well and as she did he got an idea.

"What? Don't I get a hug?" he asked with a smirk looking back and forth between Sasuke and Sakura. She seemed surprised where as he had an angry look on his face. "I..." Sakura couldn't think of what to say. She walked up to him and gave him and awkward hug. Itachi gave Sasuke a smug grin over her shoulder which infuriated Sasuke. As she began to pull away after only a few seconds he snatched her arm and literally pulled her beside him and away from his brother. "Well, it seems like you have someone to keep you company while you wait little brother. I'll leave you two alone." He said making a few hand signs then disappearing in a puff of smoke. Sasuke kept glaring at the spot where his brother had just been standing; his grip still firm on her arm.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura called. He took hold of her other arm as well but his grip on both arms was much lighter. The doors to the classroom had been opened and the other kids were making their way inside. "Don't hug him." He told her looking her straight in the eye sternly. "I don't like it." He continued. "Ok." She answered quietly. After a moment the air lightened between them and Sasuke smiled at her. "Come on." He said leading her into the classroom.

That day Sakura and the rest of the girl were excused from the classroom one hour before lunch to receive a special lecture. For the first time since Sasuke had joined the academy he was actually eager for the class to end. A few minutes before it was over the girls had finished whatever it was they had been made to do and were already outside enjoying their lunch. Sasuke felt a wave of anxiety suddenly wash over him for no apparent reason. So he began packing his books with time to spare and readied himself to jump out of his chair as soon as Iruka-sensei dismissed them.

As soon as the words left his sensei's mouth Sasuke was already out of his seat and through the door. He kept an eye out for Sakura but she was nowhere to be found; he rushed through the courtyard of the academy searching for her but she had apparently disappeared. He began to head towards a field where he knew the girls sometimes went for their lessons, his pace doubling. He heard voices in a slightly wooded area and followed them. He had found her.

A group of girls was surrounding her. A few others were keeping the other girl he knew to be Ino away so that she couldn't help Sakura. In front of Sakura in the centre of the circle stood the girl who he had seen yesterday and she was speaking.

"So, you and the Uchihas are good friends now?" she asked sneering. Sakura seemed much more hesitant than she had the previous day. "Leave me alone." She said feebly. The girls just laughed. Sakura began to scan the circle of girls, trying to find a weak spot. Her eyes fell on Sasuke. She looked surprised but uttered his name quietly. "Sasuke-kun." It shook him out of his shocked state.

"What are you doing?" he shouted. Some of the girls looked frightened but the one in front of Sakura just smiled. "She doesn't seem as tough as she did yesterday. Does she, Sasuke?" she asked. "Leave her alone." He snarled. Sakura was upset. They had _hurt_ her. They would pay. "Why should I? She's weak." She continued. "Take it back!" Sasuke shouted he was livid and was making his way towards her. The girls who blocked his path were pushed aside without a second glance. The girl had finally begun to look scared but she just kept shouting. "The only reason she stood up for you in the first place was because she liked you!" Sasuke froze and so did Sakura. He had realized that Sakura liked him with a little help from his brother, but hearing it from someone, someone he had come to loath, and hearing it in such a spiteful tone hit him much harder., he felt almost winded.

"She's stronger than you'll ever be." Had he said that? Thank god a small part of his brain still retained its capacity to think. He took a few steps until he was right beside Sakura; he put one arm around her and began to guide her forward. Her head was bowed so that her hair hid her face although Sasuke knew that she was crying. He didn't like it. Once they had passed all the girls he turned to them and gave them one last menacing glare. They all flinched. "This isn't over." he let the threat linger in the air. "Sakura Haruno is under my protection. Anyone who hurts her will pay, dearly." He noticed that two girls were still holding Ino down. "And let Yamanaka go." The girls immediately let go of Ino as if she had burned them. She gave him a grateful look and stared curiously at him as he continued leading Sakura away.

After a few minutes of walking, once he was sure that the girls were out of hearing range he stopped. Sakura immediately tried to pull away from him. He tried to keep her still but she just struggled some more. "No, Sakura wait!" he shouted. She stood completely still and absolutely refused to look at him. He sighed and let her sit down on the grass. He stood in front of her with his hands in his pockets and watched her. Although he had never been good at being patient he tried his best for her as he let her dry her face with the palms of her hands. "You shouldn't feel bad Sakura." He said hoping to get her to look at him. But she didn't and he sighed once again before continuing. "I already knew." She finally looked up at him, disbelief etched onto her face. "But I don't mind." He continued. "Because I like you too." He said smiling. When she didn't answer he, once again, poked her forehead lightly to get her to speak to him. She giggled lightly and Sasuke finally felt like he could breathe freely again. He sat down beside her and began to open the two bags of food he had with him.

"Where's your lunch?" he asked her when he noticed that she had brought nothing with her. "Those girls wrecked it." She said bitterly. "Oh." He said looking at his own lunch. He grabbed one of the rice balls and held it out to her. She looked uncertainly at it first but when she looked at his face, even though he wasn't smiling his expression was still reassuring and she finally accepted.

As they ate their onigiri they started talking. Sasuke told her about all the training he did with his brother so that he could surpass him one day to get his father to acknowledge him and Sakura admitted her lack of skill with weapons and taijutsu since he was an only child and her parents weren't ninjas. "I can teach you!" Sasuke offered handing her a Senbei without even thinking. "Really?" she asked. He nodded. They took a break from talking as they both munched on their after lunch snack. Suddenly Sakura jumped. "Sasuke-kun, class started over an hour ago!" she told him pulling on the sleeve of his shirt to make sure he listened to her. His eyes widened as he realized that he had missed a class, an opportunity to catch up to his brother. But when he started to think about how nice it had been to have Sakura listen to him, give him her undivided attention and act like whatever he was saying was the most important thing in the world he really couldn't care less. He was about to answer when a strong gust of wind picked up. Their clothes flapped around them and some of the blossoms on the trees were ripped off and sent spiralling away.

"I think we should go home Sakura." He told her. "It looks like there's a big storm headed this way. We might be forced to stay at the academy later if we don't leave now." Sakura was hesitant; she was worried about what Iruka-sensei would say to them if they skipped the rest of the day. But when she felt the wind pick up again and saw a large tree branch crack and fall right at her feet she made up her mind. "Let's go." She said. They decided to take a path that would keep them a safe distance from the academy so that Iruka-sensei wouldn't see them and force them inside. Just as they were walking through the eerily abandoned marketplace the first raindrops fell. They were big and fat; one fell directly on Sakura's nose and she jerked her head and went cross eyed as she tried to follow its path down the bridge of her nose. After the first few dropped it almost seemed as if time had stopped. They stood still in the middle of the usually cheerful marketplace listening carefully for a sound they couldn't identify. Suddenly they heard the low rumble of thunder and the sound of the rain hitting the streets reached their ears, steadily growing louder. In a minute they were already soaked through. They continued running through the streets and soon they had reached the spot where they had separated the other day.

They said nothing, just separated. Sakura stopped and watched Sasuke run along one of the streets. He didn't seem to be in all that much of a hurry. His hair was drooping down at the back of his head yet it somehow managed to maintain certain spikiness that she had associated with Sasuke. She began to run after him and when she had almost caught up to him he stopped and turned around. He had probably heard the splashes as she ran through the puddles to reach him. In less than a second she had her arms firmly around his chest and she was pressing her face into his shoulder. Sasuke tensed incredibly, his hands were inches from her but he couldn't bring himself to touch her. "Sakura?" he didn't really know what he was asking her, but felt the need to at least say her name. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun." She said quietly, he almost couldn't hear her over the sound of the rain falling. He should have known that she would be able to give him the one answer he didn't know he was looking for. He finally managed to move his hands and place them on her back and she hugged him harder, it gave him enough confidence to pull her closer to him. After a while they both remembered the rain that was falling on them. They pulled apart and Sakura smiled at him. They said their goodbyes and she began walking back towards her house. Sasuke held on to her wrist before she could leave.

"Sakura," he said. She turned to look at him, her head tilted slightly to the side. "You're Welcome." He said gently. She smiled and they both finally felt like they could go their separate ways.

_AN:/ Yo, guys. Sorry I'm late. I've spent the last three days writing this chapter nonstop with the help of Itachi, Sakura and Sasuke-sensei , and now that it's finally finished and I'm finally posting it on it's telling me that the server is having trouble uploading the file! Dammit!_

_Anyway... this is a pretty long one. It's dedicated to all of you who either reviewed or added it to one of your favourites or alerts, thanks so much!_


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke kept running down the streets of Konoha. All he wanted was to get out from under the cold rain that was falling down from the gray sky. He hated how it slowly stole the warmth Sakura had left on his chest and shoulder from him. He thought of how nice it would be to have his mother give him a fluffy towel to dry off with and some soft, fresh clothes to change into. Maybe his brother would be there as well, laughing and putting the kettle on the stove to make a hot cup of tea. Maybe he'd even get to see his father.

His father… how would he explain to him that he was home two hours earlier than he should have? How would he tell him that he deliberately skipped class and left the academy without even letting the teacher know? How would he look him in the eyes as he told him that he had actually considered the consequences of his actions, but had ignored them anyway? He was already nearing the family house and without realizing it his pace began to slow to a walk. His father would surely think of him as a disappointment now, unworthy to follow in the footsteps of the noble Uchiha. As he reached the door to the grand household he stood there looking at it. He knocked quietly and bowed his head, dreading the moment the doors would be pushed open.

"Fugaku, could you answer that?" Mikoto asked her husband. "I'm busy." She specified. He just kept reading his scroll. "What about Itachi?" he asked. "I'm helping mother." His son answered. Fugaku sighed and rolled the scroll up. He secured it and put it on one of the many shelves in the main room reminding himself to finish it as soon as he could. He swept across the main room, went to the entrance hall and opened the door. When he saw his young son who was supposed to be at the academy with his head bowed looking very upset he couldn't keep his surprise from showing. "Sasuke?" he asked. Within seconds his wife and eldest son had rushed into the entrance hall with him, each trying to find a space in the doorway that he hadn't occupied so that they could look at the boy. He was completely soaked. His clothing clung to his body and his gray shorts had darkened considerably as had his hair, making his face look even paler in the dim light provided by the stormy weather. For a moment he stood still but then his face screwed up as if the emotions he had been trying to contain had finally won him over and he threw himself at his father, sobbing.

"Sasuke, what are you doing here?" he asked as gently as he could, however years of being the Uchiha patriarch had given his voice a demanding edge that many children had often found intimidating, but none as much as his seven year old son had. He wanted so badly to answer his father's question but he couldn't. His throat felt so tight he couldn't force himself to speak. Fugaku sighed and lifted his son easily in his arms and carried him inside. Mikoto ran to get her son something warm and dry to change into and Itachi quickly sped into the kitchen to get the tea that his mother had conveniently just brewed. Fugaku sat down with his son on his lap while he cried. He absolutely refused to be pried from his father and only after much insisting from his parents and brother did he allow himself to be separated from his father just long enough to change. After drinking a few sips of tea and feeling it warm him from the inside Sasuke finally began to calm down. Fugaku kept him in his lap while Mikoto stroked his back gently. Itachi simply looked at him steadily with a concerned expression on his face. Once he finished the hot drink Itachi took his cup and he immediately clasped his hand around his father's neck with all the strength his seven year old body could muster.

Fugaku gave his wife a pointed look clearly saying that he wouldn't be the one to break the silence again. She nodded to show that she understood and licked her lips while thinking of the best way to approach her son. "Sasuke, what's wrong?" She said lightly placing her hand on the nape of his neck. Sasuke mumbled something incomprehensible into his father's shirt. He spoke in such a small voice that none of the three highly trained shinobi's ears could pick up what he said. Itachi put his own hand on Sasuke's small back in a reassuring way. "Speak up little brother." He murmured.

"I'm sorry." He said just slightly louder than the first time. He meant it for his father. Fresh tears began to form in his eyes. "I left the academy early. I-" he couldn't continue. Fugaku felt another tear fall on his shoulder. "Hush, little one. Why did you leave?" this time his voice really was gentle. No sternness roughened its edge as he tried to calm his agitated son down. Sasuke tried to speak but the only sound he managed was a little noise between a whimper and a groan. Fugaku hushed him again. "When you're ready." He whispered. Mikoto and Itachi looked in awe as Fugaku calmed and reassured Sasuke, who had begun to sniffle and wipe his eyes. Fugaku pulled him away and placed him so that he could look him in the face. "Are you ready to tell me?" he asked. Sasuke sniffled a few more times and then nodded. He looked his father in the eyes, took a huge gulp of air and began. He told him everything from the very beginning, the moment he walked in on the conversation between Sakura and the girl he loathed. Fugaku listened intently, his lips curving slightly when he heard about the way the girls all chased after his sons. Mikoto and Itachi were also listening although they already knew that part of Sasuke's story. When he began to tell them all about the circle of girls that had started to bully Sakura he became angry even though at first it was barely palpable under his ever present anxiety.

"They _hurt_ her!" he growled once his anger had been fuelled. He then told them about sharing his lunch and how she remembered about their class and how they finally decided to go home instead. "It was going to rain really hard and we'd be trapped in the academy and those mean girls could have hurt her again. Or we could have been forced to go out in the rain later when it was stronger and colder!" he said trying to justify their decision. He felt such a need to be honest with his father that he even told him about how she hugged him and how he hugged her back. "She felt so _warm_…" he said almost as an afterthought. The older Uchihas all smiled (or smirked) knowingly. When no one said anything Sasuke began to worry but Fugaku noticed and before Sasuke could voice his doubts he spoke.

"Sasuke, during your whole life you're going to have to stand up and fight for what you believe in." he began. "I said this to Itachi the day he graduated from the academy at your age." Sasuke frowned. "And now I'm saying it to you. I know that Itachi would enforce this given the chance. In a way he does when it comes to you…" he trailed of looking at his eldest son. He turned back to Sasuke. "But today you proved that you were willing to do it. You protected someone you cared about and you were willing to risk certain consequences to do it." he said, his lips curving into an almost undetectable smile. "Members of the Uchiha clan are considered adults once they manage to do Katon. But as far as I'm concerned you can wear the clan symbol on your back proudly." He straightened up and sat Sasuke on the ground. He looked at him steadily for a moment. "You really are my son." He said. Mikoto cleared her throat and gave her husband a look. "_Our_ son." He corrected, rolling his eyes which was about as sheepish as he was capable of looking. Sasuke grinned and threw himself at his parents, hugging them both around the waist. He pulled back, a thoughtful look spreading across his young face. "You're still going to teach me Katon though, right father?" he asked hopefully. Itachi laughed as both his parents looked at each other with surprised looks on their faces. "Ah, we'll see." Fugaku answered. "That always means no." Sasuke said looking down. "Alright." He heard his father say in a breathy voice. "Yes!" he said in triumph. He'd never know that his mother had elbowed his father strong enough to slightly wind him while he wasn't looking.

Sasuke settled down in his favorite chair with another cup of tea in his hands looking completely content. Fugaku got up and recovered the scroll he had set aside when Sasuke had arrived. That's when Sasuke realized. "Father, why aren't you at work?" he asked. "I wasn't feeling well and my presence wasn't indispensable so I came home early." Fugaku signed his name on the scroll, then rolled it up and put it in his bag with his other documents from work. "Besides, I stayed late yesterday." He gave his wife an appreciative grunt as she brought him a small bottle of sake and cup. "What about you, Brother?" Itachi smiled. "I asked for today off. Yesterday on my mission my arm was cut pretty badly and it's acting up today." He answered. "Can I see it?" Sasuke asked. Itachi lifted his sleeve and unwrapped the angry cut to show his brother. "But couldn't the doctors just cure it if you went to the hospital?" Sasuke asked holding his brother's arm to examine it closely. "The blade that made this cut had a special poison on it. The doctors can help speed up the healing process but they can't cure it completely like a regular wound." He explained. "Really?" Sasuke asked enthusiastically. "How does it work?" Itachi bandaged the wound again and fixed his sleeve. "Ask father to explain it to you." He said sitting beside Fugaku, leaving a space so that his brother could squeeze in between the two older Uchiha males. Sasuke said nothing just stared at his father expectantly. With his eyes closed Fugaku took the sake to his mouth and took a sip, taking his time savoring it and letting it trickle down his throat. He then placed the cup on the low table in front of him and began to speak.

"That poison isn't deadly on its own." He began. "It's very sophisticated though. When it comes in contact with human blood it creates a barrier that blocks all chakra from reaching the wound so that it's impossible to heal unless done the natural way." He explained. Sasuke listened fascinated as his father explained the basic functions of the poison. "But Itachi said that the doctors could speed up the process. How does that work?" Fugaku smiled into the cup of sake he had once again lifted to his lips. He had never realized just how clever his youngest son was. "What do you think, Sasuke?" he asked letting his son think it through for himself. Sasuke's brow furrowed and he looked at his brother's arm where he knew his wound was under his shirt sleeve and the bandages as he concentrated. "I guess…" he started hesitantly, looking at his father who was looking at him with an unreadable expression then turning to his brother who gave him a reassuring nod. "That the doctors contribute chakra into Itachi's body so that its flow becomes stronger and a small amount of it can break through the barrier and help him heal." He continued gaining confidence. His father lifted an eyebrow, impressed. "Very good." He said. Sasuke grinned from ear to ear. He didn't know what had gotten into his father that day but his dream of being praised by his father was coming true. "Do you have any scrolls on that poison, father?" he asked. His father looked doubtful. "I do. But they are too advanced for you Sasuke." He said. Sasuke sighed in defeat. "You shouldn't underestimate Sasuke, father. And if there's something he doesn't understand I can explain it to him later." Itachi offered. Fugaku still looked hesitant but went to one of his shelves none the less and pulled out three scrolls. He gave them to Sasuke who ran to deposit them securely in his room. As much as he wanted to read them right away he wanted to spend time with his father since he was rarely able to stay at home during the day.

Meanwhile Fugaku and Mikoto had informed Itachi of their plan to invite Sasuke's friend for a casual dinner. "But you hate having people over." Itachi unknowingly mirrored his mother's reaction to the news. Fugaku looked exasperated. "Who's coming over?" Sasuke, who had entered the room again, asked. "A girl and her parents." Itachi answered mysteriously. Sasuke groaned. "But they're all so annoying!" he said thinking of the daughters of some of his father's acquaintances. "I thought you liked Sakura?" Mikoto asked before Itachi could continue tormenting his little brother. Sasuke said nothing, just stared at his family with a puzzled look on his face. "Fugaku…" Mikoto nudged her husband so that he would be the one to tell Sasuke of his choice.

"I've decided to extend an invitation to this girl and her parents for dinner since you seem to be getting along so well with her." Sasuke said nothing for a moment, he looked at his father intently, tilting his head and looking at him through dark eyes. While he did so a bolt of lightning briefly illuminated the room in a bright flash of white light "Will you be there, father?" he finally asked. "Yes." Sasuke's lips curved upwards and he gave a small nod, almost as if telling himself that he really had heard right. "When can I tell her?" he asked his parents happily. "If this storm ends soon you can go today." Mikoto answered. "We were thinking of inviting them on Friday." She explained. "Today's Wednesday, that's two days from now!" Sasuke thought. "Getting anxious, little brother?" Itachi asked. "Shut up." Sasuke mumbled.

_AN/: Hey guys! I know this chapter took a bit longer than I was hoping but the Uchiha family decided they wanted to be difficult.*glares at them* *gets glared back at* Anyway I showed them who's boss. After this chapter there will be a time skip of a few months. Yes, that's right, I won't be writing about the dinner except for maybe a memory or two from one of the character's point of view. Once again I apologize for the lack of Sakura in this chapter but you'll all get your Sasusaku moments in the next chapter._


	5. Chapter 5

Sasuke was waiting, leaning against the wall of Sakura's house beside her door, his hands inside the pockets of his shorts. The wall was still cool since it was relatively early and the sun had not yet had the chance to heat it. It made a pleasant chill run down his spine. He heard Sakura's footsteps inside and saw the door opening. She didn't even have to check to see if he'd be there, he always was. In fact, by the time she opened the door she was already smiling like she always did for him. She shouted goodbye into the house while Sasuke began to lead her away towards the academy.

_Sasuke was sitting at the table. He gave a dejected sigh as Itachi walked out of the house to go on his mission. He'd have to walk to the academy by himself. He went to his room to retrieve some homework he had left in there and caught a glimpse of the navy blue haori he had worn when Sakura and her parents had come over for dinner. He shook all thoughts of that night away and hurried downstairs and out the door. As he finally left the Uchiha district he decided to take a quick detour. Hoping that his memory was correct he made his way to where he thought Sakura's house was. When he saw the little balcony that he knew led to her room he breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to the house. He was just about to knock on the door when he suddenly heard Sakura shouting a quick "bye!"and saw the door open. Sakura was looking over her shoulder and so she didn't see him. She walked right into his chest and then took a quick step back. That was when he realized how truly tiny she was._

"_Sasuke-kun? Why are you here so early?" she asked even as the surprised look on her face was quickly replaced with a smile. He didn't really feel the need to answer. "Walk with me?" he asked, tilting his head in the direction of the academy. "Sure." She said closing the door behind her._

They walked at a slow pace. The morning heat was becoming unbearably hot already and their movements were only those that required minimal effort. They entered the academy grounds, Sakura made her way straight to Ino and some other girls. Sasuke followed but remained a short distance from them, leaning against a tree with his eyes closed thinking of how he'd like nothing more than to go to the lake near his house and spend the day there lounging on the dock, maybe Sakura would be there with him too. He'd open his eyes every so often to make sure that Sakura was still where he had last seen her. He heard Sakura and the other the girls burst out into a fit of giggles and looked at her again. Even as she was laughing with her friends she turned to him, the tiniest smile made its way onto his own face and she managed to catch it before turning back to face Ino who was demanding her undivided attention.

Sakura listened halfheartedly to Ino but she'd turn to Sasuke every so often. When Ino started talking to one of the other girls Sakura took advantage of the situation to walk over to Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun." She murmured to let him know she was there. "Hn." He answered in his usual stoic manner. Sakura had often wondered if all Uchiha males were like that or if it was just Sasuke's family. Itachi usually answered with complete sentences though so maybe it was just Sasuke and his father…

"What is it?" Sasuke finally asked since she had remained quiet for so long. "Hm? Oh, I was just wondering…" once again he said nothing but she knew it was an invitation to continue. "Anyway, why don't you come join us, Sasuke-kun?" she asked leaning against the tree with him, her hands pinned between her own body and the smooth bark. "Tche." He scoffed. "I honestly don't feel like listening to you all talking about things like my brother and other boys." He answered. "You heard that?" she asked not really all that surprised since she knew for a fact that Sasuke had exceptional hearing. "Hn." They kept the silence between them for a bit longer and they both looked towards the other girls who were now pointing at them but quickly turned away to continue their hushed conversation, still stealing a glance at them occasionally. "We don't only talk about boys." Sakura finally decided she should try and defend her friends a bit. They lapsed into silence for another short moment. "What's so great about Itachi anyway?" Sasuke asked crossing his arms and glaring at the group of girls. "I think that what they like about him is his ponytail." She said shrugging and looking at them. "You too?" he asked bitterly. She flushed slightly. "I actually like your hair better." She said turning to him and reaching out with her hand. "I wonder how it stays like that?" she pondered as she brushed a few strands with her fingers. Sasuke's eyes widened from the sudden contact but he made no attempt to pull away, Sakura's hand was rather soothing and soon he had closed his eyes again to savor the contact. She suddenly stopped and he could feel her pull away. He gave a low grunt of displeasure and opened his eyes again. She had a light blush on her cheeks and she was looking embarrassedly towards the group of girls she had been with earlier who were all looking at them again and giggling. Ino, who was the only exception, was looking at the other girls disapprovingly. Sasuke's eyes narrowed but he knew better than to force her to continue, she was too embarrassed to look at him properly let alone continue any physical contact.

He had opened his mouth to tell her to ignore the girls when Iruka-sensei's loud voice cut through the early morning air, shouting at all the students to get to class. An exasperated noise escaped from Sasuke as he nudged Sakura to get her to move. He sat them both down in the front row since he knew that the girls would sit at the back to gossip some more. Some more giggling was heard and Sakura was turning back to look at them when he held her shoulder firmly and stopped her. "Don't." He whispered darkly. She hesitated but complied in the end, partly because Iruka-sensei had started their lesson. When they were finally given some questions to answer Sasuke was constantly irritated by the little notes Ino insisted on passing to keep Sakura updated on all the major gossip topics at the back of the class. His irritation was due partly to the fact that most of the tightly balled up pieces of paper managed to land in his hair but also because of the fact that he knew from reading over Sakura's shoulder that they mostly consisted of his brother "good looks" and "manly build". His only consolation was that the conversation seemed to be awkward and downright uncomfortable for Sakura who would take advantage of Iruka's momentary distractions to signal Ino to stop.

After a particularly long description of all of his older brother's good attributes he finally had enough. He hurriedly scribbled a note informing Ino that if one more note was thrown their way his brother would hear some interesting stories about her and flicked it so as to hit her square between the eyes and then turned around without waiting to see if he hit his target. He knew he had. He wasn't bothered for the rest of the class.

_AN:// Guys I am so, so sorry for the long time it took me to write this. If you stop to think about it my last update was in late February. I start school in March and so I got a kind of "back to school blues" so to speak. It made me completely lose my groove with this story and I still haven't managed to completely get it back. But don't worry, THE STORY WILL BE CONTINUED! It just might take a bit longer between updates until I get back on track. This chapter was actually around 4,000 words but it was also complete shit. I have decided to cut it short and at least give you an update. Now, one last thing, don't hesitate to send me PMs for whatever, especially if it's to remind me to get my rear in gear. Thanks. Fire out!_


	6. Chapter 6

Spring had finally turned into summer and the village hidden in the leaves was swarming with kids on their long awaited break. There was no longer any trace of spring in the village as all the children played around in the streets while the adults threw them envious looks as they went about their day and their responsibilities. Itachi, who had been given the day off by the Hokage himself so that he could take care of his brother while his parents were gone, was lounging in a chair in the main room of the house looking out the window while leisurely drinking a glass of ice cold water. A feeling of dread had been eating at him the past few days and the bright, sunny day outside seemed to mock his strange feelings. He decided to shrug it off and with a shake of his head continued to let the peaceful images from the window seep into his consciousness and calm him. He heard Sasuke's footsteps padding down the stairs and felt his brother's chakra signature entering the room.

"Hey, little brother." He said setting his glass down on the windowsill the ice cubes made a small clicking sound against each other. He turned to the doorway. Sasuke was standing there with one hand on the frame. "Where are mother and father and why are you here?" he asked. "Good morning to you too, Sasuke." God, he loved his little brother but he could be so annoying sometimes, would it kill him to be just a little less blunt?

"I was given the day off and our parents have been called in for a special mission." He explained even though he was tempted to just ignore his brother's question. "Mother too?" Sasuke's voice was laced with concern. His mother was too sweet to go on missions and be in fights, she was too caring, too motherly. His brother grunted in reply "Will she be alright?" he asked, looking up at his brother with worried eyes.

Since Sasuke was old enough to look up to him, which was practically since he was born, Itachi had realized that he had the ability to inspire confidence in his brother. It was just a matter of lowering himself to his brother's eye level, something that had become much easier as his brother grew older, and looking him in the eye. He did just that. Once his sharp eyes noticed that Sasuke calmed down, he spoke.

"Sasuke, our mother is one of the elite Shinobi of this village. She mastered all the family techniques at an early age and she easily surpassed the main Uchiha house's great standards." He explained while Sasuke's brow furrowed. "She's been an ANBU for years now. A puny mission won't be enough to put so much as a scratch on her. She has always wanted us to feel her presence in our lives so she goes on few missions but she is still one of the best." Now Sasuke's eyebrows were close to reaching his hairline. "Really?" he asked. Itachi smiled at his brother's awed expression. "Do you want to know a secret?" he asked in a whisper. Sasuke leant in closer and Itachi continued. "Everyone says that you and I are geniuses; that we take after father. But I often think that its mother that truly gave us that ability." Sasuke nodded slowly. His brow was once again furrowed and Itachi knew that he was digesting this newfound information. Itachi smiled at his brother expression and pushed him into the kitchen. "Come on. Let's have breakfast."

After a nice breakfast with his brother Sasuke decided to go look for Sakura to tell her about his newfound knowledge of his mother. They were sitting on a bridge overlooking the water that was sparkling in the summer sun, a lone branch occasionally passing under the bridge floating downstream at a leisurely pace.

"Wow, so she's been an ANBU all this time?" she asked once he finished the story. "Yeah." He answered leaning back and looking at a lone hawk soar by. "I wonder what kind of mission it is, for them to call both your parents and all." She said imitating him but while looking at a single leaf fall into the river. Her words made his heart clench painfully. He was used to his father going on missions but his mother, who was so small and delicate especially when compared to Fugaku Uchiha, how would she go about a battle? Sakura calling his name was what broke him out of his thoughts before they went to something bloody and unpleasant.

"Sasuke-kun, what's wrong?" she asked, touching his forearm gently to make sure she broke him out of his thoughts. He looked at her quietly for a moment and then scooted closer until she was right beside her and then hugged her tightly to himself. "I'm worried for her, Sakura." He whispered. He held her firmly to his chest so she wouldn't see his expression, wouldn't see him in his weak moment. She hugged him back, even though she couldn't see his face she could feel his actions, they were jerky, almost hesitant and he was so tense that it almost felt as if his whole body was trembling.

"She'll be alright, Sasuke. Itachi said so, remember?" she said as she rubbed her hands down his back in a smoothing motion. Slowly he relaxed and pulled back. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before nodding. "Will you come stay at my house tonight?" he asked without his usual commanding tone. "What?" She asked as he opened his eyes and looked at her. "My parents come back tomorrow morning." He explained. She barely had to think it over before nodding. "Of course." Sasuke got up and dusted himself off, then held his hand out to help her up.

They walked to her house talking about anything but his mother and when they got to her house she asked him to wait for her outside. After a little begging, a few cute pouts and some emotional manipulation she walked out the door with her overnight bag. As they walked down the well know streets that would lead them to the Uchiha compound they stayed quiet. Sakura observed his behavior. His hands seemed to be hidden deeper in his pockets then usual and his posture was slightly more slouched. He was scowling at the ground a few feet ahead of him as he walked and his footsteps were almost like a mere shuffling compared to his usual confident stride. In an act of complete spontaneity she took his hand and led him in a quick jog the rest of the way. They ended up reaching the compound hot sweaty and thirsty. Itachi heard the noise they made as they burst into the house and quickly strode over to them. He saw both of them leaning over trying to catch their breaths. They still held each other's hands, something he didn't fail to notice. "Why am I not surprised." He muttered so quietly they couldn't hear. He felt tempted to comment but felt that it would be best to leave them alone, just this once.

"I had a feeling you'd be coming over, Sakura. Lunch is on the table for both of you." They both suddenly realized how hungry they were and rushed into the kitchen. "Couldn't you have made something a bit…better?" Sasuke groaned. Itachi had put some leftovers from the past few night on the table and since dinner, and lunch for that matter, had been mostly ramen the past few days it didn't look all that appetizing. "You want it, you make it, little brother." Itachi's voice came from the living room. Sakura laughed and pulled a plate over. Sasuke grudgingly did the same. Once they finished their lunch they spent the rest of their day out in the training grounds where Sasuke kept true to his word of helping Sakura improve her weaponry and taijutsu.

It was late at night and they both lay on Sasuke's bed, they were both facing opposite directions, engulfed in silence but still they both knew that the other wasn't sleeping. Sakura finally turned to look at Sasuke's back.

"Sasuke-kun?" she asked to get his attention. He turned his chest to look at her; they could see each other clearly thanks to the silvery-blue light from the moon. "It's sweet, the way you worry about your mother even though you don't have to." She smiled and turned so she was on her back but still slightly facing him. He stared up at the ceiling for a while and finally turned to her. "Sakura?" He called out. She didn't answer. He had suspected that she had fallen asleep anyway. He turned to face her completely and saw that she had one of her hands spread out close to him. He touched the tip of her fingers with his own and watched as a slight sound he couldn't quite make out came from her lips while she flexed her fingers and moved her hand so that it lay gently on top of his. He slowly fell asleep after that.


	7. Chapter 7

Mikoto looked into her youngest son's room through the tiny opening in the door. It was just after dawn and the first rays of light were peaking into the room leaking a reddish-gold light into the room through the window. Sasuke was sprawled on his side, using his arm as a pillow since Sakura seemed to have hogged them during the night. His face, peaceful and unreserved, was facing towards his friend. Sakura was curled up close to him, the very image of innocence; her left hand was under her cheek while a few strands of her pink hair fell over her face, tickling her nose and falling onto the crisp white pillows. Her legs were tucked up close to her body and it seemed as if she was having some sort of dream because occasionally her face would twitch into different expressions. Her right arm was stretched out towards Sasuke but Mikoto couldn't see her hand. She backed up and felt a tall body standing behind her. She turned to her husband who was looking into the room with an amused look.

"That's my boy!" he murmured quietly. Mikoto rolled her eyes. "Idiot." They heard slow steps coming towards them. Itachi had woken up and had decided to go down the hall to check up on the two younger kids. His ponytail was in complete disarray and his eyelids were heavy with sleep. He stopped when he saw his parents. His gaze went from them to the door they had been looking into and a small smile made its way to his lips. "You've seen them." His voice was a tired whisper as he pushed a few strands of hair out of his face. Fugaku's amused look turned into a full-blown grin and Mikoto turned to look into the room again.

"Did you see their hands?" Itachi asked. His mother shook her head and stood on tip-toes to try and catch a glimpse. Itachi pushed the door and both his parents tensed as the door slowly swung open. "It can't be more than two or three hours since they fell asleep. There's no way in hell they'll wake up easily any time soon." Mikoto sent him a dirty look. "Watch your language." didn't need to be uttered. They carefully picked their way through the room while Itachi watched them from the door. They reached the foot of the bed without making a single sound.

Sakura's right hand, which looked to be outstretched towards Sasuke from the door, was actually firmly clasped in Sasuke left. Sasuke, for his part, was holding her hand close to his chest and seemed to actually be nuzzling it with his nose.

None of the room's occupants had noticed that Itachi had slipped away and returned. He crept into the room behind his parents. The sound of a picture being taken startled the elder Uchihas. They turned and saw their eldest son checking to see how the picture came out. He smirked at them and flashed a thumbs up before sneaking back to his room.

They left the room and got ready for bed. Mikoto had already gotten comfortably under the blankets and was waiting for her husband to finish his last round of the house. She felt his chakra spike and knew that he was trying to sense if there were any intruders in the grounds. Shortly after he walked back in and slipped into the bed. Now that she was certain that there would be no need of her anymore that night she let herself relax completely so that she seemed to sink into the mattress even more. She felt her husband's hand stroke her cheek and turned to look at him.

"Tired?" he asked. She scoffed and closed her eyes. "That was nothing. Do you have any idea what it's like looking after your sons? Especially with all the training they both do to impress you? I have to be on constant alert." She let him pull her into his embrace and set her hands on his arms. "This?" she continued. "This was a piece of cake." He chuckled. "It can't be that bad." He muttered, caressing her waist. She stayed silent for a moment while he traced the outline of her neck with his lips.

"Well. Itachi does seem to have outgrown it… and Sasuke has calmed down a bit since he met Sakura." She said after a while. She felt him smile against her skin. "How long do you think it'll be before he holds her like I'm holding you now?" he whispered nipping her neck lightly.

"I don't know." She murmured. "But you're the one talking to her parents when he does." He laughed then fell silent. She knew that silence. It was the one that always came before a subject her husband found really important, even if he didn't want to admit it. "What are the chances of our grandsons having pink hair?" he muttered. She smiled. "Why don't we start worrying about ourdaughter-in-law first?" she said. He said nothing which she took to be an agreement. His hands went to her flat stomach stroking it gently.

She had just begun to nod off when he spoke again. "We did well, didn't we?" he asked. "Hm?"She mumbled, in her sleepy state she couldn't quite understand what he was talking about. "With the boys." He clarified. "We did well." She smiled and hummed her agreement. He pulled her closer to his body and lifted himself so that he was looking her in the eye. "How do you think they'd react to another brother?" he asked. "Or maybe a sister?" he said grinning. She knew that grin, too. She'd seen it on the nights that Itachi and Sasuke were conceived. She pushed him back down onto the mattress. "Sleep now. We'll talk about it tomorrow." Her husband gave a dejected sigh but pulled her closer.

Apparently Fugaku wasn't the only male in the house who wanted some attention. To Mikoto it felt like she had barely shut her eyes when she felt a small body launch itself at her gently but with enough force to startle her out of her sleep. Her youngest son was clinging to her body and apparently refused to let go. She smiled and pulled him closer to her. Sasuke rarely let her hold him like that anymore. They stayed like that for a while; Sasuke didn't move from his mother's warm embrace. "Don't ever leave again." He whimpered once he was sure his mother wasn't going to disappear. "Alright." She whispered as he snuggled even closer to her.

She realized that Fugaku was nowhere to be found and decided that it was time for her to go make breakfast .She lifted her son up in her arms since he was latched on to her with tremendous strength and walked to the kitchen. When she walked in the sound of fire from the stove quickly reached her ear and she found her missing husband serving food onto five plates and setting them onto the table. He turned around when he felt her come in and smiled.

" 'morning." He said as he washed his hands and dried them on the kitchen towel. "I was wondering where Sasuke had run off to. He saw me in here and zoomed out of the kitchen faster than I've ever seen him move." He ran his hand through Sasuke's hair affectionately. "I guess he just missed you." He laughed as she swatted his hand away from Sasuke's hair. "So what if I did?" Sasuke's voice muttered from his mother's shoulder. "Besides, you're just jealous because she likes me better." He said turning around and smirking at his father. A scowl formed on Fugaku's face as he looked at his son's incredibly irritating smug look. "Why you little…" he muttered under his voice turning back to the food. Mikoto laughed at the exchange between the two. "Sasuke, why don't you go get Sakura down here for breakfast?" she said setting him back down on the floor. "Okay." He said quietly, walking out the door. He hadn't gone far when he popped his head back in. "Will you sit beside me?" he asked. She nodded reassuringly and a brilliant smile formed on his young face as he left to wake his friend. She went behind her husband and wrapped her arms around his waist, placing a kiss to his shoulder to numb the brutal blow that had been inflicted to his male ego by his seven year old son.

_AN:// Hey guys! Here's the new chapter, hope you like it. Enjoy. Oh, and check out my oneshots if you enjoy slightly more angsty SasuSaku!_

_P.S. You might want to check the previous chapters cuz there are a few minor changes a made but it might confuse you just a tiny bit if you've already been reading this for a while._


	8. Chapter 8

Itachi stood completely still, his eyes closed waiting for his opponent's slightest movement to be detected by his keen hearing. They had been fighting for hours and his clothes were dusty and were ripped in some places. His hand slipped into his weapon pouch and pulled out two shurikens. He heard his opponent exhale ever so slightly and his arm moved in a flash, his weapons leaving his hand. Expertly thrown, the probability of them being avoided was null. The other Shinobi let out a sharp hiss of pain as the second one bit into the muscles of his shoulder. Using the body flicker technique he appeared on the other side of the battlefield hanging upside down from a giant branch that was one of the many characteristics of the trees in and around Konoha. Pushing off, he launched his body at Itachi, fist outstretched ready to land a stunning blow. Itachi, however, was having none of that and grabbed his wrist, inches from his face and swung him into a rock a few feet from where he was standing. He let out a satisfied smirk as the other ninja grunted. He flicked one of his sweaty ebony locks from his face and took a few deep breaths.

"Had enough?" he asked as his opponent tried to dislodge himself from the crater his body had made in the boulder upon impact. Itachi couldn't stop the laugh that escaped him once the other ninja managed to free himself only to fall flat on his face. Once he heard the laugh the other teenager looked up at Itachi with the Sharingan spinning, easily visible through his short curly hair. "Fuck you." He said as he threw a single shuriken. It was nimbly caught by a still laughing Itachi who let it spin lazily around his index finger before coming to a stop.

Shisui Uchiha got up and glared at his cousin as he dusted himself off. He liked his cousin better when he could easily be given a good beating. He groaned slightly as he noticed that it hurt to breathe.

"From now on I'm sparring with Sasuke." He muttered as he tried taking shallow breaths to restock on some much needed oxygen. Itachi just smiled a knowing smile and shook his head.

"You'd just sulk because sooner or later he'd start kicking your ass too." He laughed again imagining his seven year old brother kicking his fifteen-year-old cousin's ass. Shisui growled but said nothing. "And besides, it's almost like he doesn't have time for anyone anymore since he and Sakura started hanging out." He muttered as an afterthought. Shisui's ears perked up when a female name was mentioned.

"Your little brother got a girlfriend? Before you?" he asked, a grin spreading on his face. "Shisui, he's about to turn eight for god's sake!" Itachi said while rubbing his temples the way he always did whenever Shisui was starting to annoy him. "Oh! So he's dating an older woman, huh? Hot!" Itachi grabbed on to the collar of his cousins shirt. "For your information she's seven! Stop being a sick pervert!" he growled. Shisui held up both hands in surrender and Itachi let him go with a warning look.

They began their short walk to the Uchiha district. Shisui said nothing but occasionally an amused smile would make its way onto his face. Soon it was accompanied by a few snickers. By the time they had reached the door to Itachi's house he had fallen into a complete laughing fit. Just when Itachi was about to do something about it Shisui doubled over and winced in pain. "Shit!" he groaned. "I shouldn't have laughed so much." Itachi rolled his eyes but waited patiently for his friend to straighten up so they could both go inside.

They slipped off their sandals as they walked into the hall and went into the kitchen where Mikoto was enjoying her afternoon tea. Itachi went up to her and kissed her cheek making her smile while Shisui stood further behind. "I hope you're not here to raid my kitchen again, Shisui." She said off handedly as she took another sip from her tea. Itachi rolled his eyes again and turned back to his mother. "Can he stay over for dinner?" he asked. "I owe it to him since I might have broken a few of his ribs…" he muttered. His mother served some more tea into her cup. "Sure, Sasuke invited Sakura to stay over too." She took another sip. "Shisui, did you just giggle?" she asked raising an eyebrow at the boy. He immediately sobered up as a scowl spread on his face. "Of course not." he said. He did _not_ giggle. "Hmm." Mikoto said, not sounding too convinced. "Anyway, Itachi could you check up on your brother and Sakura? They're a little too quiet for my liking." She said. Itachi nodded and walked towards the living room with Shisui close behind. Mikoto followed them with a questioning gaze. She could have sworn she heard Shisui giggle again.

"Come on, Sakura. Just say it!" Sasuke's voice hissed. Sakura's voice could be heard answering.

"No!" she squeaked. "It's not fair."

"I can stay here like this all day Sakura. Come on!"

"No!" Itachi and Shisui looked at each other and wondered what the two kids could possibly be talking about.

"Yes!"

"No!" The two older boys both walked into the room and were shocked by the little scene that was playing out in front of them. The living room was a mess, a paper bag from auntie Uchiha's Senbei stand lay on the floor ripped in half and the Senbei were covering the floor. In the middle of the mess were Sasuke and Sakura. She was lying on her back looking angrily up at the youngest Uchiha who was straddling her waist and pinning her hands to the floor with an arrogant smirk that looked somewhat strange on his young face. "Sasuke!" Itachi shouted in shock while he tried to find a way to express how inappropriate his actions were

"Not now, Itachi. I'm busy." He said turning his head to him even though his eyes only left hers for a second before they returned. His smirk broadened as he leaned in closer. "Yes!"

Shisui was laughing, holding on to the couch for support. His laughter was only interrupted every now and then by a slight grunt or hiss of pain before he continued to chuckle.

Sakura looked up at Sasuke rebelliously. "Make me!" she challenged. Sasuke's smirk became downright evil as he let go of one of her wrist and began tickling her, not caring that she was using her free hand to try and push him off. He was stronger anyways. Itachi somehow managed to notice that he had probably used this method of persuasion on her before since he seemed to know of all her weakest spots. Soon she was simply trying to stop his hand with her free one while shouting for him to stop but he was still stronger.

"Fine! Fine! From now on you eat the first Senbei from the bag!" he immediately stopped and she lay panting. He leant in again and gave her another one of his infuriating smirks. "I win." He said happily. As soon as he got up Sakura sat up and turned her back to him. "You suck." She pouted as he started picking up the Senbei from the floor. "So what did you want, Itachi?" he asked. Itachi opened his mouth to try and tell his brother off but still could not find the right words. He shook his head.

"You're mother's problem now." He said seeing that his mother had just walked into the room. Mikoto had decided to check up on them herself when she heard Sakura's cries for help. She knew she was right to do so when she saw the slightly shocked look on her eldest son's face. Shisui was still laughing (giggling) on the floor but was trying to pick himself up. She decided that it would probably be for the best to just ignore that.

Sasuke finished picking up the treats and put them in the remnants of the paper bag. "Sakura?" he said trying to get her attention. She huffed but gave no other sign that she had heard him. "Sakura…" he groaned, rolling his eyes in a way similar to his brother's. He hated when she purposefully ignored him. "C'mon Sakura!" he said poking her shoulder. She swatted his hand away. He Sighed but decided to swallow his pride. "Fine, I'm sorry. Happy?" he muttered quietly. She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him with a big grin on her face. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as a pout of annoyance crossed his face.

Seeing that his brother probably needed a minute to restore his ego to its usual gigantic proportions Itachi walked over to Sakura and picked her up with ease. "Hey little sister, how've you been?" Sakura giggled and tried to wiggle out of his grasp. "Itachi! Let go!" she laughed as he settled her on his shoulders, far from the ground; at least so it seemed to her. Her little hands grabbed onto a few of his locks for balance. Sasuke was glaring slightly at the little interaction but his jealousy when it came to Sakura and his brother had become slightly more tolerable. Instead he decided to throw a few dirty looks at his annoying cousin.

"What're you doing here!" he asked gruffly. Shisui sent him a glare of his own. It was no secret that Sasuke and Shisui had a strained relationship at best; they found each other mutually aggravating and rarely agreed on anything at all. Sakura looked from one to the other trying to see how things would turn out. Itachi closed his eyes and sighed exasperatedly; he winced slightly when Sakura lost her balance a bit and tugged on his hair.

"Alright. Break it up you two." Itachi said moving between them. He set Sakura back on the ground beside Sasuke, who held onto the sleeve of her blue shirt, then walked over to where Shisui was standing. "Sakura, this is our cousin Shisui." He introduced putting a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "He'll be staying over for dinner today." He continued, giving Sasuke a cautionary look. "What!" Sasuke shouted indignantly, taking a step towards them. Itachi held up a hand signaling for him to stop. Sasuke glared at his hand but seemed unable to move even as Itachi used it to poke his forehead; all he could do was follow it with his eyes. "Deal with it, little brother." Itachi said as he pulled his hand away. Sasuke snarled but stayed quiet. Itachi's head snapped towards Shisui who was snickering. "Shut up!" he growled, making sure that neither one of them could do anything to anger the other. "See you at dinner." He said smiling at the younger kids and sending a wink in Sakura's direction. "Come on, Shisui."

They went up to Itachi's room to spend the time until dinner. Itachi untied the weapon holster from his leg and set it on his dresser. He pulled out some of his kunais and sat down on his bed to tend to them. Shisui sat down on the floor while leaning against the bed.

"Your brother is still an annoying little bastard." He said. Itachi kept analyzing his kunais, turning them in his hand over and over to see which needed sharpening. "He said the same thing about you the other day." He muttered as he settled them into two piles. He started sharpening one of them. Shisui ignored the remark.

"So that's the girl you were talking about?" Shisui asked. Itachi just hummed to confirm his question. "That was an… interesting position your brother put them in." he smirked. Itachi scowled, he ran the sharpening stone over the kunai one last time letting it ring and then set it down on the bed. "Don't even go there." He warned quietly. Shisui gave a sheepish smirk when he saw that Itachi was completely serious and cleared his throat. "She's quite the looker." He said changing the subject. Itachi started sharpening his kunai again. "I wonder what she sees in your brother?" Itachi groaned. "Why does this interest you so damn much?" Shisui took his time answering. "Well, I guess it's just because I was sure the only people capable of standing long periods of time in your brother's presence were you and your parents." He said shrugging. "Sakura's a very sweet girl." Was Itachi's only answer.

They heard pounding footsteps down the hall and shouting. Itachi set the kunai on the floor and seemed to be waiting patiently. The bedroom door burst open and Sakura ran into the room followed by Sasuke. Sakura dodged Sasuke's lunge for her and he knocked into Itachi's dresser and growled. She jumped onto Itachi's bed laughing as she hid behind him. Sasuke followed and she kept turning around Itachi to avoid him. Sasuke grabbed her but she freed herself and ran out the door again with Sasuke on her heels. It all happened in less than a minute.

Shisui stared at the door long after they had left. Itachi grinned as he started sharpening his kunai again. "What was that?" Shisui asked turning to his cousin. Itachi's grin widened as he looked back at him. "You get used to it." he shrugged as the sound of Sakura's shouts of glee and both the younger kid's laughter echoed in the room.

_Yo guys! I know it's been a while, please don't be mad? __ I hope you like this chapter, especially all you Itachi fans!_


	9. Chapter 9

Dinner that night was an extremely awkward affair for Sakura; she was seated beside Sasuke on one side of the table with the other being occupied by Itachi and Shisui. The tension between Sasuke and his cousin was almost palpable and Shisui only seemed to be making it worse by bringing her into the middle of any of their petty arguments.

"Don't you think that he could be a little nicer? And maybe a little bit less of a bast-?" he didn't finish his sentence, catching himself before his aunt could find a legitimate excuse to pound him but he still kept his eyes on Sakura waiting for her to answer his question. Sasuke and Itachi were both glaring at him and Sakura was wondering if she could manage to pull off the substitution jutsu to escape this extremely uncomfortable situation, however, seeing that the possibilities were practically nonexistent she decided to settle for an answer.

"He's always nice to me…" she mumbled trying to slip further down her chair and hopefully out of sight. "Really?" Shisui asked her with a disbelieving look. She remained quiet hoping that Itachi or Mikoto would help her, maybe even Fugaku or Sasuke but she had no such luck, and thus once again her only alternative was an answer. "He's nice in his own way." She avoided all eye contact with any of the occupants of the table and pretended to be engrossed with her food. Eventually knowing that she wouldn't be able to handle anymore she decided to send a pleading look first to Fugaku and then Mikoto, who seemed to take pity on her. "Why don't you and Sakura go and play, Sasuke?" his father said, his deep voice resounded authority and didn't reveal that he had even noticed her plea, but she knew. Before his father had even finished closing his mouth Sasuke was already pulling her out of her seat and dragging her towards his room.

"Yeah, he's a total gentleman." Shisui's sarcasm filled voice followed them through the halls of the house. "Shut up, loser!" Sasuke shouted back. Mikoto's indignant and unintelligible cries of disapproval could be heard but Sasuke already knew what she was saying. "I learnt it from Shisui!" he shouted before running the last few feet to his room and slamming the door shut after yanking Sakura in.

"You're in so much trouble…" Sakura warned him. She had heard him swear before but never so loudly and never in front of his mother. To her surprise he just smirked a lazy smirk that always seemed to look good on his face. He held a finger up to his lips telling her to be quiet and listen. "I took care of it." he said letting the silence engulf them for a moment before they heard the shouts coming from the dining room.

"Shisui Uchiha! How dare you! How dare you corrupt my little boy, my baby! He's only about to turn eight and you've already got him swearing like a missing-nin!" Sasuke's lips curled up even higher into an evil grin. Shisui's voice could faintly be heard arguing but he was swiftly cut off by Mikoto once again. "Don't you even think about bringing Itachi into this, he never swears and he's never been anything but a good influence for Sasuke-chan." Sakura furrowed her brow at that. "Itachi swears all the time." Sasuke nodded in agreement. "She usually ignores it. She doesn't even notice when he does it now." He explained.

"And even if he did swear I'm sure he would have gotten it from you. You'd have influenced him like you influenced my poor Sasuke!" Sakura briefly wondered whether Mikoto's shouts would be enough to convince a missing-nin to go back to their village. She heard Itachi's calming tone slip into the conversation and shortly after the volume became noticeably lower until eventually the voices could no longer be heard at all.

Sasuke had apparently lost interest in the conversation before she had and was lying on his bed reading a scroll. She walked over and settled herself beside him reading it with him. He patiently waited for her to catch up before turning it over and neither one said a word until they finished and Sasuke had rolled it up again and hidden it under his bed.

"You stole that from Itachi, didn't you?" Sasuke re-appeared from under the bed and he climbed up again and sat beside Sakura. "It's not stealing if I'm going to give it back." He muttered. "He probably knows them all by heart anyways."

Sakura could only mutter out a half answer, whenever she lay down on Sasuke's bed she always seemed to suddenly realize how tired she was. It was just that comfortable. Seeing that she had fallen asleep Sasuke got up and headed for his brother's room. He took the blankets from his brother's bed and carried them back into his room where he used them to cover his friend. Once he was satisfied with his work he decided to go see how the situation with the rest of his family had progressed. He saw Itachi and Shisui playing go in the living room and went on to the kitchen. His parents were drinking tea together. He made sure to give his mother a big hug then walked up to the phone and dialed Sakura's number while both his parents watched out of curiosity. Eventually her mother picked up.

"Hello?" Sasuke was grateful that it wasn't Sakura's father that answered; he seemed to have something against him that he just couldn't put his finger on. "It's Sasuke." He answered dryly. The other end of the line was silent for a moment. "Is everything alright, dear?" Sasuke spared a glance at his parents through the corner of his eye. "I think Sakura will be staying here tonight, is that alright?" he decided to phrase his sentence as a question even though he knew her mother would never deny him. "She fell asleep." He clarified. The other end of the line was silent once again. "Of course that's fine dear. Goodnight." He smiled, right as always. "Goodnight." He hung up and went to the refrigerator and served himself a glass of water. He bid his parents goodnight and walked back to his room; he sat down on the bed with his drink and a book and settled down. Just as he was finishing the third chapter on fire jutsus he felt Sakura shift in her sleep and wrap an arm around his chest. After a few more chapters she woke up.

"Sasuke-kun, what time s it?" she asked drowsily. He checked the clock. "It's midnight. Don't worry I called your parents, you're staying for the night." He handed her the glass of water and she happily drank from it. She was so tired that she fell asleep again almost immediately after handing him the glass again. He watched her settle down then settled the water on the bedside table and continued reading until he reached the end of the chapter. He took the bookmark from the nightstand and marked is page then quietly placed the book down. He then took the covers and gently slid under them so as not to wake Sakura. Once he was comfortable and convinced that he hadn't woken her or left any part of her body uncovered he turned the light off, he turned to face her and heard her murmuring in her sleep. Whenever she stayed over he often caught himself watching her sleep since it always seemed to reveals new characteristics that he sometimes hadn't noticed before, more than once he had heard his name slip from her lips and he found it rather pleasing that even in her sleep she said it as warmly as during the waking hours. Sakura didn't disappoint and once again he heard his name leave her in a breathy whisper. The room was so dark that he could barely make out her outline but he felt the sheets moving and her arm once again found its way to hug him and he didn't dare move for fear of disturbing her.

He remained there in the dark with Sakura cuddling up to his side and as he heard his name yet again he couldn't help but wonder if her name ever left him while he slept.

Meanwhile Itachi lay bitterly on his bed. Although it had been a beautiful summer day the night was strangely cold and without his blankets he was finding it hard to keep warm but he just didn't have the heart to take his blankets from Sasuke. The worst part was that he couldn't believe that there weren't any other blankets in the whole house but he didn't know where they could possibly be and he also didn't have the heart to wake his mother. He realized that it was in times like these that being a nice guy really came back to bite you in the ass…

_AN:/ Yo! Yes I'm still alive (barely) school is such a pain in the ass… literally, the chairs suck! Anyway, I just thought I'd post the second part to Shisui's cameo. Poor guy… Sakura should probably just move in with the Uchihas shouldn't she? Well, you'll all get to see why she spends so much time there later on in the story. Itachi's theme song at the end is Nice guys finish last by Cobra Starship. Love that band and the singer is from my hometown! Ain't that swell? Sorry for the rant guys…_


	10. Chapter 10

Sakura woke up alone in the room with a ray of sunlight bathing her face in its warm glow. She scanned the room looking for Sasuke but didn't find him anywhere. She lay down again and starred at the ceiling calmly letting the morning air wake her up. She heard the door open and turned expecting to see Sasuke walking in, instead his brother was pushing it open with his shoulder while carrying a tray in. The smell of the delicious breakfast Mikoto had lovingly cooked up wafted towards her and she quickly sat up as Itachi placed the food on her lap and sat down beside her taking one of the cups of tea that had been placed on it.

"Sasuke said you hadn't woken up yet and asked me to bring this to you when you did." He explained taking a sip from the warm beverage letting it warm him after his cold night. "Where is he?" She asked watching the door expecting to see him walk into the room and join them. Itachi only pointed at the tray while taking another sip, signaling for her to eat. She had long since noticed that none of the Uchihas liked to be interrupted while drinking their tea, except Mikoto who was at her most talkative when holding the warm ceramic cup tucked away elegantly in her graceful hands. She quickly emptied her plate and eagerly waited for Itachi to finish. "Where is he?" she asked again as soon as he finished the tea. "No idea." He said. She gave a dejected look and sighed. Itachi looked down at her, even when they were both sitting down he was almost two heads taller than her. He smiled and ran his hand through her hair once to tame it. "Don't worry kiddo; he's been disappearing like that for the last week or so. I don't know where he's going but he'll be back soon." He grabbed the tray from her and walked out.

She sighed dejectedly and wondered what to do now that Itachi had left her alone in Sasuke's room. Turning to the bedside table she saw the book Sasuke had been reading and opened it. She loved reading Sasuke's book whenever she got the chance; he had such a wide variety when it came to jutsus and combat techniques that she would sometimes spend hours at a time in his room reading his books. She knew he didn't mind, he seemed to enjoy the quiet companionship of reading together, either sharing a book or simply being in the same room as an occasional rustle of a page flipping came from one of them.

She had started reading the third chapter and was looking at a page that had been scribbled on with Sasuke's neat distinctive handwriting when the book was gently pulled out of her grasp and a sweaty and tired Sasuke came into her sight, kneeling on the bed and still panting heavily from whatever it was he had been doing he still managed a weak smile at her before lying on the bed to catch his breath and slow his erratic heartbeat.

"What happened to you?" she asked surprise at seeing him like that. She didn't recall ever seeing him this worn out before; he had great stamina and was never too deeply affected by their training at the academy, something she had more difficulty with. The heat from his body was so strong she could feel it pulsing onto her own skin.

"Sakura." Even his voice seemed to be unsteady, as if his throat hurt but she knew that Sasuke didn't get sick. Ever. It was the natural way of things. "Sakura, water." She stared at him for a few seconds, his request hadn't quite registered with her but a strange noise that left his throat as he exhaled sharply snapped her out of it and she quickly scurried away to the kitchen.

Itachi was there when she got there and looked up from what he was doing when he heard her burst into the room. She told him about Sasuke and he looked worried for a moment but suddenly a thought seemed to pass through his head and he calmed down. He helped her get the water. "Does his throat hurt?" he asked as he lowered a medicine box from the kitchen shelves. "I think so."She answered hesitantly. She wasn't sure but Itachi just gave a knowing nod and gave her a pill for Sasuke. She had been hoping that Itachi would come with her but he simply ushered her back to the room with the medicine and the water.

Sasuke had apparently somewhat dozed off on his bed. She shook him a bit and he groggily looked up at her. She gave him the pill and the glass of water and was surprised to see him take it without complaint. His pride usually didn't allow him to take any kind of medicine without a fuss which made his mother immensely grateful that he rarely got sick. After a while the medicine seemed to take effect but it made Sasuke extremely drowsy. He tried to resist but eventually he was forced to succumb to it and he dozed off again soon after. Sakura decided to let him rest and went back to the kitchen where she knew she'd find Itachi.

He looked up once again as he saw her come in. "Is he sleeping now?" he asked as he invited her to sit with him at the table. "Yeah." She mumbled as she sat down beside him. They didn't speak for a while and Sakura just looked out the kitchen window and watched a single cloud float lazily across the sky. When she could no longer see it through the window she turned to watch Itachi. He had rolled out a scroll on the table and was running his finger across the lines as he read them carefully, his expression serious, it was what she secretly called the "Shinobi face". She'd seen it often enough on Sasuke at the academy and sometimes it was even present on Ino's face. It consisted of a hardening of the features: thinning of the lips, narrowing of the eyes. It gave almost anyone who wore it a fierce dangerous look, something she had learned was almost as important as any shuriken technique or jutsu a ninja could learn. It told a possible opponent that you were dangerous to mess with and could possibly spare you a fight.

Itachi finished reading and sighed as he leant back on the chair and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand. He finally noticed that Sakura had been observing him for some time without saying a word. "It's an A rank mission briefing," He explained. "I'll be gone for a few days next week to complete it." he pushed a lock of hair from his face and tucked it behind his ear again. She nodded and examined him from her spot. Even though he was almost twice as old as her she couldn't help but think that he was very young to be taking such dangerous missions. It was common for a team sent out on an A ranked mission to come back with fewer members than when they set out. "Be careful." She whispered. Itachi's eyes widened in surprise at the obvious display of concern but he smiled back at her warmly. "I always am." He assured. He couldn't help the chuckle that escaped when he saw the skeptical looked on the younger girls face. "I'm still here, aren't I?"

He watched as she slid off the chair she had been occupying and padded over to him. She wrapped her small arms around his chest and gave him what was supposed to be a tight hug; to him it felt incredibly light compared to Sasuke's rib-crushing ones. He returned the hug by wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "Just don't get yourself killed." Her small voice mumbled as she pulled away. He couldn't help but widen his smile. He stood up and carried a giggling Sakura outside. "Come on. Sasuke's going to have to sleep that pill off but you can hang out with me while we wait." They saw Mikoto in the garden tending to a flower bed and walked over to her. She was kneeling in the ground with her long straight hair tied up in a messy bun and she was wearing long thick gardening gloves, her left hand held a pair of shears and her right hand was picking at the dry leaves of the different plants and stuffing them in the big pouch in the front of her white apron. The sleeves of her black shirt had been rolled up creating a stark contrast with her pale skin that both her sons had inherited. Sakura had long since noticed that all of Sasuke's family managed to maintain its aristocratic look despite not being strangers to hard work. When they were only a few feet away from her Mikoto sat back on the soft grass, she stuck the shears in the earth beside her, took off her gloves and unrolled her sleeves.

"Mother, I'm going to take Sakura for a stroll, do you need me to get anything?" Mikoto untied her hair and pushed a few stray locks behind her ear. "Where's Sasuke?" Her mother instincts were tingling: seeing Itachi and Sakura, Sasuke's two favorite people in the world, together without him was practically a sign of disaster. Itachi frowned slightly; he settled Sakura on the ground and walked up to his mother and began to whisper to her. From where she was Sakura could see Mikoto's face as it darkened with every word Itachi said. When he finished Itachi took a few steps back so that he was standing beside Sakura again. "I'm going to kill your father when he comes back from work." Mikoto growled. How dare her husband teach her baby boy that jutsu already? He knew that Sasuke was prone to straining himself when he set his minds to something!

"Is your brother alright now?" she asked looking towards the house as if she expected to see Sasuke coming towards them. "Sakura gave him the medicine." Itachi told her setting a comforting hand on the younger girl's shoulder since she was shuffling on her feet nervously during the whole exchange. "I offered to hang out with her until he wakes up." Mikoto knelt down in front of Sakura "That's nice. Have fun, both of you." She said as she tucked a lock of pastel pink hair behind the young girl's ear and then shooed both children away.

"Will Sasuke-kun be alright?" Sakura asked. They had decided to head over to Ichiraku's ramen stand to pass the time and were currently waiting for their order. "He'll be fine." Itachi smiled at her. "He's just been overworking himself these past few days." He thanked the girl who gave them their order and slid the bowl of ramen over to Sakura. "Eat up." He waited to make sure she started eating and finally took a bite himself.

"But what was he doing? He never gets so tired when we're in the academy." A thoughtful look made its way onto Itachi's face; he chewed slowly on his noodles and took his time before answering the question. "I think I know what he's been up to, but I'm not sure so I'll let him tell you when we get back. If he's awake, that is." Sakura sighed and returned to her ramen.

An hour later they left Ichiraku's and started heading back to the Uchiha compound. Sakura was recounting some of the things that had been going on at the academy while Itachi laughed.

"You know, Iruka isn't that much older than me." he mentioned during a pause in the story. Sakura stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. "No way! He's way older than you!" she said tilting her head to the side and staring at him.

Itachi smiled at her incredulous look. "It's true." He said as he took her hand and got her to keep walking. "He's just, three or four years older than me. He's about Shisui's age." She stared up at his towering figure, still surprised by the newfound information. "But, you're so cool and Iruka-sensei… isn't." She said rolling her eyes at the very idea of her teacher resembling Itachi in any way. But Itachi just laughed at her comment. "It's not poor Iruka's fault if you brats annoy the hell out of him." Itachi remembered Shisui's comments about how bad the academy teacher's temper could get and considering the kids the poor guy had to teach…

Sakura was thinking along the same lines. "There is one kid who he's always shouting at." She mentioned. "Hm?" They turned a corner and entered the Uchiha district. "An annoying blond kid. He kinda drives everyone crazy. If he shows up for class." Itachi's curiosity surfaced. "You wouldn't be talking about the Uzumaki kid, would you?" he asked as he greeted a stern looking man with a nod of his head. The man wore the Konoha police badge and was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. He mirrored Itachi's action with a great amount of respect as they passed him. Sakura took Itachi's hand again as she scooted closer to him. She didn't dare answer his question until they'd put a good amount of distance between themselves and the man.

"Yeah, that's him." She murmured as she threw a quick nervous glance over her shoulder. "How did you know?" Itachi shrugged. "Word about these things gets around."

Itachi abruptly stopped. Sakura turned around and looked at him as he looked over her head. His family's house was isolated from the rest of the district by a bunch of fields and personal training grounds. He had stopped them at the property's limit where it was extremely rare to come across anyone. "Sakura try and be nice to that kid okay? You don't have to be friends with him but if you run into him at least be civil." Sakura's brow scrunched up, Itachi's voice had lowered to barely above a whisper and his words were all quick in leaving his mouth. He had knelt down to her eye level with an intense serious expression on his face and his hands which had been placed on her shoulders kept her from leaving his gaze. "There's more to him than meets the eye, Sakura. I can't tell you anything else about it but trust me on this." She nodded intently once he finished. He continued looking her in the eye for half a minute and then smiled to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Come on, it's been almost two hours, Sasuke's probably awake by now." He said as he continued walking to the house. Sakura stayed still for a while as she let Itachi's words sink in, once she snapped out of it she ran to catch up to him.

They decided to go in through the back door that went directly to the kitchen and were pleasantly surprised to find both Sasuke and his mother there. Sasuke was drinking water directly from a two liter bottle and ignoring his mother's ongoing lecture about recklessness which she was delivering while expertly handling herself around the kitchen preparing him lunch. Sakura instantly ran up to him and after a few tentative pokes to make sure he was okay she also joined in on the lecture while Itachi simply gave his poor brother a sympathetic look as he sat down facing him.

"What were you doing anyway?" Sakura asked once she started losing steam. Sasuke's face brightened up and he jumped off his chair. "Come on, I'll show you." He said taking her hand and running to the door. "Sasuke don't you-" It was no use. He had already dragged Sakura out the door and was far enough to pretend not to hear Mikoto's warning.

Sasuke dragged Sakura through his mother's garden and led her to the lake where he had been spending the better part of his mornings for the last week. They walked onto the wooden platform and he told her to stand back before he walked to his usual spot when practicing his family's famed jutsu. His hands flickered with practiced ease to form the seals he knew so well and his chest puffed out; for a split second he stayed still letting the chakra's intensity build up. And then he released it from his lungs and let it assume the form of a large fireball. It traveled far into the lake licking at the air as the water reflected the orange light before it dwindled and died. Sasuke braced his hands on his knees; he had only recently managed to master the jutsu and it put his body under a lot of stress, especially his lungs and throat. That and the fact that he had already passed his limit earlier that same day made him take longer than usual to recompose himself. Once he finally managed to get his breathing under control he turned to face Sakura who hadn't moved from her spot. She stood with her mouth ever so slightly open, eyes wide and head tilted to the side, staring at the spot where the giant fireball had been before disintegrating. Sasuke took another deep breath and swallowed trying to wet his dried throat.

"So?" he asked nonchalantly although it was obvious she was impressed and it pleased him immensely. She shut her eyes for a moment and then re-opened them as if the image of the fireball was still burned onto her retinas. "Sasuke-kun that was amazing!" She ran to where he was standing and began looking between him and the place where the fireball had disappeared; judging the distance it had traveled. "When did you learn it?" she asked.

"Father showed it to me a week ago." He answered with a proud look on his face. "It took me a while to figure it out but after that it was pretty easy."

"One week?" she murmured. "Sasuke-kun, you're unbelievable." She said as she hugged him. He let a small thanks escape his lips as a look of pure triumph washed over his face.

Neither one of the two noticed another pair of eyes that had been observing the scene. After the initial shock wore off the same look of triumph appeared on Fugaku's face as he witnessed the scene from a distance.

_AN:/ Wow, I'm pretty bad at this updating thing aren't I? _

_Sasuke-sensei: yeah, you suck at it._

_Itachi-sensei: it's because you're weak_

_Sakura-sensei: Now cut that out you guys!_

_Yeah, they've been torturing me like this for the past four months…_

_well at least this chapter is pretty long to try and make up for it. As for me… well. I've got two more weeks of school left. I played in my school's concert back in October it was really cool, the song I sang was one I actually found out about thanks to an Amv: .com/watch?v=bJkUUxB2zzE_

_Anyway, my computer broke and I've only just gotten it back today. Also, I'm still trying to learn to draw so I can hopefully turn this fan fiction (along with a few other's that are still really vague although they've all got some Sasusaku to look forward to)into a doujinshi._

_Well,there'll hopefully be at least one more update before the end of the year and I hope to hear from you guys, seriously, just write whatever's on your mind ;D _


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